Those funky club goers at Retrojam Ltd. have kindly donated £300 to the farm. Director of the events company Will Cutting described how he'd held an event for local University students and decided to dedicate 10% of their profits to a local cause.

​There were 3 contenders and we won! A huge thank you to everyone that voted for us to win and to Retrojam Ltd. for the generous donation.

]]>Fri, 11 Nov 2016 10:20:43 GMThttp://www.downtoearthfarm.org/blog/interserve-fix-our-fenceThe lovely chaps from Interserve have done it again! We mentioned that we were in desperate need of a new fence and sure enough through the generosity of Interserve's 'Give A Day Of Your Time' scheme they were able to build a sturdy new fence to prevent people from tripping near a raised wall. What's more the fence was paid for out of the money donated by the Interserve Employee Foundation grant, so it didn't cost the farm a single penny! (well, perhaps the odd cup of tea or two but I think that's a fair trade). Over the course of two days and through blustery Autumnal winds the fence took shape and is now standing proudly. It's definitely handy being friends with a construction company! Huge thanks to Anthony Diment, Derek Barrow, Andy Lucas, Stacy Kinch, Neil Whitbread, Ryan Erratt and the Interserve Employee Foundation grant for helping us out.

As well as being their 'Charity of the Year', Sainsbury's Lordshill has set up a Food Donation Programme with us. Twice a week we will collect any leftover fruit and vegetables which would otherwise have been sent back to be made in to compost. Trust me when I say that we have many small animals that enjoy squishy strawberries and bruised bananas.I went to collect our first batch of goodies and was absolutely overwhelmed at how much produce we were given; needless to say my car was smelling a little fruity on the way back to work. We had pumpkins, raspberries, cucumber, aubergines, bananas, pineapples and plenty of other fruit, vegetables and salad. This is a wonderful way for Sainsbury's to support their local community AND their chosen charity. It is an incredible help to the farm as it means we have a constant supply of fresh greens to feed the animals. Thank you Sainsbury's!

Unbeknownst to us, the lovely people at Basepoint have been fundraising for us through a variety of social activities including holding a coffee and cake morning as well as a 'guess how many sweets in the jar' competition. The other day we received a surprise cheque in the post for £163.00. A big thank you from everyone at the farm to Caroline Ciaravella and her team for their kind donation!

Ok well they don't have a farm exactly, but they did have a corporate volunteer day with us. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ten Mott MacDonald employees contributed some serious elbow grease in to building 'Wisteria Walk', an enormous pergola for the garden.

Sam Brookes, Engineering Technician at the Southampton Mott MacDonald branch, came for a tour of the farm as his work had donated £1,000 pounds towards a local community project and were impressed with all that the farm had to offer. No stranger to structural engineering, Sam had soon rallied a small team together to get stuck in to our latest project. Furthermore, they had also held a 'dress like a farmer for the day' fundraiser and raised over £120 for us!

Wisteria Walk is a long pergola that covers our farm walk pathway that will eventually be covered with Wisteria. Our Adult Learning Disability Programme will include nurturing and pruning the plants, becoming a symbol of longevity as it will be enjoyed by the community for centuries to come (the lifespan of Wisteria is over 100 years).

Thankfully the Autumnal weather was clear and forgiving contributing to the completion of Wisteria Walk in one day. Sam and the gang worked extremely hard and we're all absolutely delighted at how well it has turned out. A massive thank you to Sam Brookes, Pete Smith, Ollie May, Tom Candy, Steph Hands, Balal Ali, Louise Dixon, Charles Dunkley, Sarah Harris and Tom King for making Wisteria Walk happen!

]]>Wed, 12 Oct 2016 13:36:39 GMThttp://www.downtoearthfarm.org/blog/santander-complete-the-sensory-herb-gardenIn the crisp but sunny Autumn sunshine, Santander rocked up for a day of digging to complete our sensory herb garden. Nine plucky employees spent the day finishing the final touches; building a wood chip pathway, lining the border with hazel wood and lavender plants, planting some sensory stimulating bamboo bushed next to the arbour and filling in our recycled tyre bed with manure ready for Marigold Mound next spring.

Tim Noakes, Customer Implementation Manager from the Dorset Street branch of Santander organised his group to get stuck in as part of their Discovery Days whereby they help the local community. After a brief chat from Richard explaining the plan for the day, Tim and colleagues Matt Shaw, Paul Ralfs, Geoff Eavis, Carl Fleet, Suzie Kelly, Jo Whatley, Steve Andrews and Mel Ceo grabbed some shovels and got to work!

We think it looks absolutely beautiful and ties in with the work that SouthWest Trains did for us previously along with the Community Kickstart grant of £250 worth of herbs. At last, our sensory herb garden is complete! A huge thank you to Santander for all of their time and hard work.

]]>Tue, 11 Oct 2016 10:26:57 GMThttp://www.downtoearthfarm.org/blog/festool-builds-our-friends-of-the-farm-board​As a small charity, corporate support makes a huge difference to the farm. Whether it’s a financial contribution, donated products or building a much needed project item, businesses really do make a massive contribution. Festool are one of those businesses that have made a significant contribution. This company makes exquisite power tools (the kind that makes Farm Manager Richard Mulholland swoon with delight) and when Allan Steenkamp, a Festool employee, was showing us the products in our wood workshop we ended up chatting about how the farm needed a space to celebrate the generosity of corporate support. The only problem, we explained, was that we didn’t have the sharpest tools in the workshop to make the board (I’m not talking about Richard again…).

Allan had a quiet word with the big bosses at Festool who kindly agreed to purchase the materials and build the board for us, and isn’t it beautiful?! Made from rich Oak, the ‘Friends of the Farm’ board has been lovingly crafted, sanded and oiled to perfection by Allan and his colleague James. We are absolutely delighted to be able to offer something in return for the support shown by companies and now when we have a corporate team-building day a new plaque can be added to the board. Thank you Festool, for building such a beautiful and eye catching structure for the farm!

So what is the 262 challenge you ask? Inspirational athlete Adam Holland accepted the challenge of running 262 miles in just 5 days visiting Oasis Academies and communities along the way. Day 1 started in London on the 2nd October, and since then Adam has been running almost 60 miles each day; if that doesn’t demonstrate hope, inspiration and endurance I don’t know what will! ​Adam is the youngest ever person to run 100 marathons; he once ran 24 marathons in 17 days, and in 2014 he ran the world’s fastest 10 marathons in 10 days at the Great Barrow challenge averaging 2:58:38.

On Wednesday 5th October (day 4) Adam arrived at Oasis Academy Lordshill where he was greeted by cheering students, teachers, members of the community and three fantastic staff members Darren, Debs and Kate from Sainsbury’s Lordshill who have been supporting the 262 challenge. Barely out of breath, Adam gave an inspiring speech on how running is a universal activity accessible by anyone regardless of their social situation, background or context and how it perfectly encompasses Oasis’s core focus: inclusion.

CEO of Oasis Community Learning John Murphy joined Adam, Academy staff and 11 students in running from the Academy down to Oasis Down to Earth Farm where they were met with congratulatory cheers and gifts generously donated by Sainsbury’s Lordshill including delicious cupcakes, bags, mugs, wristbands and various other goodies.

After a 15-minute break almost everyone headed home for dinner and rest, but not Adam! Oasis Academy Mayfield were waiting for him as his next stop, so on he ran. As I type today is the last leg of the 262 challenge (day 5), and Adam will be heading back to London to complete his 262 challenge.

We are so exceptionally proud of Adam for dedicating his time to raise money and awareness for all the good causes Oasis does with its local communities, so from everyone at the Academy, farm and local community THANK YOU ADAM!

]]>Wed, 28 Sep 2016 09:37:15 GMThttp://www.downtoearthfarm.org/blog/tickets-for-our-country-barn-dance-are-on-sale-nowGrab your cowboy boots and cowboy hat and shimmy on down to a live band playing the best of country music. Tickets are £10 per person including food and drink, there will be prizes for the best fancy dress costumes, a jail photo booth, raffle, bounty hunt, fundraising games and silent auctions. The theme is anything to do with country and western; think straw bales, fresh flowers in old watering cans, guitars and fiddles, old rope and enough red check and double denim to satisfy the early 90's. Even if you don't feel like dancing the night away there will be plenty of games to entertain yourselves and lots of yummy grub to tuck in to. Bring the kids, bring the grandparents, bring whoever you like!

]]>Tue, 27 Sep 2016 07:45:33 GMThttp://www.downtoearthfarm.org/blog/an-anonymous-donation-has-arrivedAn anonymous donation has arrived at the farm! Thank you so much to the kind individual who has bought us a brand new petrol strimmer, colouring books (as modelled by our dashing tortoise Dr John), some drill bits to be used in our wood workshop and some tasty biscuits! What a lovely start to the week. I know we say this a lot, but these kinds of donations are what keeps the farm going. Whoever you are, thank you from all of us!